A discussion thread is typically organized as a logical tree structure. Users share messages and various content, such as text, graphics, audio/video clips, and the like via, a centralized server. Each discussion thread includes an “initial post” and one or more “reply” posts. The posts may be presented in chronological order beneath the initial post. The term “post” is sometimes referred to by other names, such as “entry”, “message”, “comment”, “reply”, and the like, and may generally refer to any specific type of message within a discussion thread. Discussion threads are frequently included in on-line forums, newsgroups, and blogs.
Discussion threads are often voluminous, with multiple users posting short, spontaneous comments that may have little value. Each reply is typically indented from the comment to which it responds. A large string of replies, each replying to a prior reply, may become too large to view on a typical display. In some cases, repetitive back-and-forth horizontal scrolling may be required to read a string of replies, and a user may find it difficult to read the replies while maintaining the overall context of the initial post that instigated the replies. Some discussion systems have sought to limit the number of replies made to a discussion comment, to keep the overall discussion thread readable. For example, some commenting systems allow replies to replies of the initial post, but not to those replies.